Category: Taxes

Tax revenue for the first quarter of 2018 totaled $60.9 million, less than half of the state’s projection of $175 million for the fiscal year ending in June.

BY ED MURRIETA

SACRAMENTO — California tax revenue for the first three months of cannabis legalization is way below state projections but not as bad as partial figures teased this week in a state economist’s blog post.

The state on Friday released full financial figures from California cannabis revenue for the first quarter of taxed and regulated sales — including excise, cultivation and sales taxes.

An initial figure of $34 million in combined excise and cultivation emerged Wednesday in a blog post by an economist at the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Friday’s figures the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration was slightly lower — $32 million from the state’s 15 percent excise tax and $1.6 million from the $9.25-per-ounce cultivation tax. The CTDFA released sales tax figures showing $27.3 million in revenue, not counting city and county taxes.

Tax revenue for the first quarter of 2018 totaled $60.9 million, less than half of the state’s projection of $175 million for the fiscal year ending in June.

The state’s $141 million shy of the $175 million it predicted cultivation and excise taxes would generate by the end of the fiscal year.

SACRAMENTO, CA — California adults are not purchasing enough taxed-and-regulated cannabis to meet the state’s revenue projections for the first six months of legal, levied sales.

A report due Friday from the Department of Tax and Fee Administration will show the state collected $34 million in cannabis sales for the first quarter of 2018 — leaving the state $141 million shy of the $175 million it predicted cannabis cultivation and excise taxes will generate by the end of the 2017-2018 fiscal year, June 30.

The figures were published online Tuesday in a blog post by an economist at the state Legislative Analyst’s Office and are the latest indication that California cannabis consumers may be turning to the black market to avoid paying up to 45 percent taxes when local sales taxes are factored.

The Department of Tax and Fee Administration figures do not address local taxes, which range from 7.25 percent to 9.25 percent, and are tallied at the local level.

In addition to black-market sales affecting state projections, lower-than-forecast tax revenues may be due to the number of California cities and counties banning cannabis businesses, and the late start of adult-use retail sales in Los Angeles, the state’s largest market.

Is there some kind of tax break
for medicinal cannabis consumers?

BY ED MURRIETA

Once again, taxes top The Regs, this time in the context of a Medical Marijuana Identification Card that can save registered medicinal cannabis consumers bongloads of money in new taxes and allow you to carry eight times the amount of adult-use pot.

I’m a medicinal cannabis user. I heard about an official pot card that lets me avoid paying taxes. Is there some kind of tax break for medicinal cannabis consumers?

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